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Oyster Crabs

Oyster crabs served on toasted crackers with light wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Oyster Crabs

Ingredients

Directions

Cook

  1. Heat the oyster crabs in a chafing dish with enough butter to prevent sticking.

  2. Use a low flame to warm them through.

  3. Do not add any salt other than what is in the butter.

Serve

  1. Serve the warmed crabs on toasted crackers with a glass of light wine.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Crab + creamtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together317 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

  4. Crab + buttertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together812 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Oyster + crabtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together95 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Oyster crabs
The main ingredient, providing the delicate seafood flavour and texture of the dish.
Butter
Fat that keeps the crabs from sticking to the dish and adds richness.

The step that matters

Warm the crabs over a low flame. Seafood proteins toughen and dry out when overheated, so gentle heat warms the oyster crabs through while keeping them tender and moist.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oyster, crab, butter, wine, flour, cream, pepper):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against oyster, crab, butter, wine, flour, cream, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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